How to create a good blog?

(Picture from ThemeLib.com 2008)

The content of blogs is not easy to create; many successful bloggers have created their own special style of blogs writing. To write good blog content, there are a few principles that the bloggers should follow.

First of all, the title of the blog plays the most important role. According to Rowse (2006) a good title is able to grab the readers’ attention, many bloggers tend to create title that might bring shock, confuse or controversy which will draw the readers to their post.

Moreover, title helps the blogger to explain the content of the blog and it also help the reader to meet their need.

According to Teaching English website (2009), there are a few things that bloggers should avoid. For instance, bloggers should always avoid being negative and never raise sensitive issues such as insult other culture.

Lastly, the blogger should always remember never post the exact name, private home address and contact number.

References:

Rowse , D 2006, 10 Steps to Using Titles Effectively on Blogs, ProBlogger,viewed 15 June 2009, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/19/using-titles-effectively-on-blogs/

Teaching English 2009, How to write a good blog, BBC World Service, viewed 15 June 2009, http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/help/how-to-write-a-good-blog, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/03/24/10-steps-to-writing-a-successful-series-on-your-blog/

Good Email Writing Skills

Based on the online article which entitled “Emoticons and email etiquette’ in Media Report websites (2007), Krtisin Byron discussed about a good writing style of email and usage of emoticons.

Today, email writing has become one of the modern communications tools that often utilised in business industry (Riches, 2008). Email helps the world to become smaller as it allows people to send email over long. Compare to the olden communication ways such as correspondence and making calls, email is costless and faster. (Picture from RaceEarthGA@aol, 2009)

According to Byron (2007), during email communication, people often neglect checking their mistakes and end up trigger the misinterpretation of email by the receiver.

A good writing is important as writing indicate well educated person and the capability of writing to articulate ideas and information enable one to power over the ideas and opinion of other people (JPROF, 2008).

Therefore, to generate a good effective email there are a few etiquette rule that the writer should follow. For instance, during writing email, one should use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, because improper spelling, grammar and punctuation will tend to give people bad impression and wrong interpretation (Emailreplies.com 2008).

Furthermore, one should avoid use capital letter to write in full sentences because it may seem as he /she is shouting (Emailreplies.com, 2008). For instance: COULD YOU SEND ME THE LETTER NOW, PLEASE, when the receiver is reading this sentences, he /she may misperceive the email and assumed that the sender is angry or rude.

Moreover, great word choice is also very important, according to Glen (2007), it is not signify that how many words one had used but it is more important that the word that used is able to fit perfectly.

Besides that, one should be careful with usage of abbreviations such as BRB (be right back) or LOL (laugh out loud), and emoticons such as sad- : (. This is to avoid misinterpretation as receiver may not understand the meaning of the abbreviation and emoticons (Emailreplies.com, 2008).

Lastly, always remember to check your email again before sending out the email because after you click the ‘send’ button, you will not be able to correct your mistakes or change the content.

Communication between people is the requisition to build and maintain the relationship between people. A good writing skill is very important as it helps construct effective communication.

References:

Email Replies.com 2008, Email etiquette rules for effective email replies, viewed 14 June 2009, http://www.emailreplies.com/

Glen 2007, The Most Important Tips for Better Writing, PROBLOGGER, viewed 14 June 2009, http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/06/19/the-most-important-tip-for-better-writing/

JPROF 2008, Basics of good writing, FreeFind.com, viewed 14 June 2009, http://www.jprof.com/seminars/basicsofgoodwriting.html

Media Report 2007, Emoticons and email etiquette, ABC Radio National, viewed 14 June 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Riches D 2008, Email writing tips: communication effectively using email, Riches Communication, viewed 14 June 2009, http://www.riches.com.au/articles/writing-email-tips.htm

New Genre: Webisode

In the online article entitled “Webisodes for kids” it shows the interview with Chris Corbett who is a webisode producer of Tiny Town. In the article, Corbett (2007) had shared his experience and challenge in producing webisode and rise an issue that children today tend prefer to watch movie in internet. ( Picture from Super Stock, 2009)

Nowadays, television no longer play the central role as internet had become the most powerful and multifunctional media (Kaye & Medoff, 2005). According to Guthrie (2007), there is more than 30% of the web users watched live streaming video such as webisodes.

The term ‘webisode’ is a combination words of web and episode, refers to short video or movie that broadcast on internet (Kayne, 2009). Webisodes do not have standard fixed length, the length of webisode is short as it only span from 4 till 15 minutes (Vinklund, 2009). As stated by Clay (2009), a successful webisode will keep it short so that the people would not lose interest.

According to Kayne (2009), webisodes are always used as a marketing tool. For instance, movie trailers or online game advertisement on web, webisodes are able to arouse the audiences’ interest and appetite. Besides the purpose of commercial and promotion, webisodes can be also used as a preview and collection of short part (Viklund, 2009).

Unlike television programs, some webisodes provides interaction which beneficial to the webisodes producers to grasp the viewer’s interest and improve their skills. For instance, Youtube has provided comments box and rating. (YouTube.com).

Moreover, webisodes is flexible as it allows the viewers to enjoy no matter when or where as long as the internet connection is available. Unlike the TV episodes, webisodes are mobilized as the viewers can enjoy webisode by using mobile phone or laptop.

In conclusion, webisodes are a new genre which is still unfamiliar to people who are not sensitive to the advance of technology. As the media continuing develop, there will be more new media and genre in the future.

References:

Clay (2009), 10 keys to creating a successful webisode, Advent Creative, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.adventcreative.com/10-keys-to-creating-a-successful-webisode

Guthrie, M (2007),What’s a Webisodes Worth?, Broadcasting & Cable, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/111311-What_s_a_Webisode_Worth_.php

Kaye, BK & Medoff, NJ 2005, Electronic Media: Then, Now and Later, Pearson Education, United State of America.

Kayne, R 2009, What are Webisodes?, WISEGEEK, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-webisodes.htm

Viklund, A 2009, Ask What Webisodes Can Do For You, Ivan Cevallos’s Blog, viewed 13 June 2009, http://ivancevallos.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/ask-what-webisodes-can-do-for-you/

Pictures and Photojournalism

According to the article entitle “the power of the photograph” by Media Report (2007), it mentioned about the experiences and difficulties of the photojournalists in wars and how the war pictures have been view by people involved in war and other foreigners.

Kress and Leeuwen (2006) stated that, graphics have variety role such as illustration, decoration and information. Furthermore, graphic plays a dominant role in communication especially in journalism as it able to summarize an event, person or inspire a place; and it able to motivate human’s feeling (Buckholder, 2009).

Based on Buckholder (2009), photojournalism had been described as “the craft of employing photographic storytelling to document life” by Kenneth F.Irby. Photojournalism helps people to experiences, feel and observe the world in ways and captured the moment that helps people to learn and grow from the moments (Dunleavy, 2006).For instance, Antony Funnel indicated that, the photographic gallery will help the locals to keep the memory of wars alive (Media Report, 2007).
(Picture from Deep Jive Interest, 2008)
However, readers may have different understanding of the same picture or text because different people may have different experience, knowledge, social awareness and culture Schriver (1997),. Moreover, during the interpretation of text, the reader’s mood and interest will influence the reader’s concentration to the text.

The enhance of media had cause the photojournalism become more complicated technologically and ethically as pictures that simply reflect the incidents are no longer likely, the photojournalists have face hard ethical decision during capturing and choosing picture (Buckholder, 2009).

Furthermore, Buckholder (2009) had mentioned the three main ethical issues of photojournalism, such as manipulation of digital images where people are able to change the “truth” by edited the picture with software such as Adobe Photo Shop; intrusion into privacy and shocking images. The second ethical issue will be intrusion into privacy where the photojournalist tend to captured and published the pictures of popular people such as celebrities or politician without notify and ask for their permission. Furthermore, due to create newsworthiness and dramatic impact to the audiences, the photojournalists tend to published shocking images.

In conclusion, the interpretation of picture or text can be influenced by many reasons. As a professional photojournalist or normal graphic user, one should use the technology wisely but not scheming as pictures is supposed to show the reality and facts.

References:
Media Report 2007, The power of photograph, ABC Radio National, viewed 13 June 2009,http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm


Buckholder, C 2009, Online Journalism Ethics:Photojournalism, Journalism Ethics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, viewed 13 June 2009, http://www.journalismethics.ca/online_journalism_ethics/photojournalism.htm

Dunleavy , D 2006, Photojournalism’s Future Leaves a lot to Consider, TypePad, viewed 13 June 2009, http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2006/12/photojournalism.html

Schriver, KA 1997, Chapter 6 in Dynamic in Document Design, Hoboken, New Jersey.
Kress, GR & Leeuwen, VT 2006, Reading images: The Grammar of Visual Design ,Routledge, United Kingdom.

New Genre of Mobile Phone

Today mobile phone is essential to people, almost everybody has a mobile phone. The users of mobile phone are broad as it is welcome by all class of people. In the article entitled “Rise of the mobile video blog”, Simmons (2007) had discuss about the advance of mobile phone which allowed the users to capture, view and post video to web by using mobile phone.

Today, mobile phone is no longer used as a tool of voice communication; the newest mobile phone contains other functions which provide entertainment such as cameras, games consoles, internet browsers and songs (GlobeCaller UK, 2008).

The new function of mobile phone has initiated new genre of texts such as mobisode and moblog. Moblog is also known as mobile blog which is a blog that sustained by using mobile phone or PDA(personal digital assistant), moblog often renew by uploading the files from camera phone to a blog (Whatis.com,2008). Moblogging has begun in Japan and Korea as the 3G wireless services have been arises for years (Whatis.com, 2008).

As indicated by Maxwell (2006), mobisode is a short episode of a television program which is specific generated for the mobile phone user to watch the episode through the screen of mobile phone. Generally, the length of the mobisode is only last for one till three minutes (Maxwell, 2006). Nowadays people tend to use mobile phone to watch video and episodes. Based on the MarketTools study (2009), the figures of people who watched television and video content on their mobile phone has remained at 35 per cent from 2008 to 2009 (Zoomerang Blog, 2009). Moreover, according to the Zoomerang Blog website (2009), 78 per cent of American users expect that mobile device TV and video usage will rise by 2010.

(Picture from Portmanteau Words, 2007)

The advancement of technology has slowly changed the way of mobile phone usage and produced new genre of texts such as mobisode and moblog. In unison, it also influenced the way the users live.


References:

GlobeCaller UK 2008, How mobile phone has changed the live we live, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.globecaller.co.uk/how-mobiles-have-changed-our-lives.html

Maxwell, K 2006, Word of Week Archive: mobisode, Macmillan English Dictionary, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/wordoftheweek/archive/060828-mobisode.htm

Simmons, D 2008, Rise of the mobile video blog, BBC News, viewed 12 June 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7392594.stm

WhatIs.com 2008, What is moblog?, TechTarget, viewed 12 June 2009, viewed 12 June 2009, http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1180174,00.html

Zoomerang Blog 2009, Mobile Device TV And Video Usage Remains Steady, Expected to Rise by 2010, viewed 12 June 2009, http://zoomerang.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/mobile-device-tv-and-video-usage-remains-steady-expected-to-rise-by-2010

New Form Of Media Publishing

As the technology began to improve, human tend to demand for better things and life style. For years, the advance of technology has also changed the form of publishing and diversity of modes currently utilized in publication today. The old visual literacy began to develop into a new visual literacy which combined both graphic and written texts (Kress and Leeuwen, 2006). For instance, the journalist has added pictures and color into the newspaper article to give a clear picture to the readers.

According to Vaina (2008), new technologies have initiated new media platforms and styles, for instance there were various media types of blogs such as mobile blogging, video blogging, spam blogging, sketch blogging and tumblelog. Today, people no longer just play the receiver role; the traditional media was vocational because people do not have time or resources to create media, however the new technology has changed the media to become avocational (Karp, 2006). For instance, blogging is considers as avocation media as it provides free opportunities to the user to generate content in the blogs.

Unlike the traditional media such as newspaper, blogs provides interactive channel that allows the users to share or exchange information, opinion and ideas as the visitors is able to leave their comments and opinion (McColm, 2008). Moreover, the bloggers can learn about the needs and skills from their visitors which are beneficial to the manufacturers.

Furthermore, blogs provide freedom and does not have any limitation. On the other hand, the traditional media has limitation of freedom and information as the traditional media companies were accountable to the shareholders (Karp, 2006).

Although the enhance of new technology and new media have generated new form of publishing, the old media would not be replace as both old and new media have their different targeted audiences and purpose.


References:
Karp, S 2006, Vocational vs. Avocational Media, Publishing 2.0, viewed 12 June 2009, http://publishing2.com/2006/05/13/vocational-vs-avocational-media/

Kress, GR & Leeuwen, VT 2006, Reading images: The Grammar of Visual Design ,Routledge, United Kingdom.

McColm, E 2008,Benefits of Blogs ,Nonprofit Resource Center, The Enable Network, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.nprcenter.org/knowledgebase-mainmenu-203/web-20-for-nonprofits-mainmenu-402/benefits-of-blogs-mainmenu-404.html

Vaina, D 2008, New Meida Versus Old Media, America.gov: Engaging the world, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.america.gov/st/freepress-english/2008/April/20080513173802WRybakcuH0.6948358.html

WebBlogs Community

Online community has existed since in 1990s and email is the first and yet the most commonly com used communication tool in internet (Preece et.al, 2003). In these recent years, blogs has introduced a new platform for the communities. Moreover, the advent of Web 2.0 services such as photographs, audio, video and web cams, have aroused the user’s interest to join weblog community.

According to Owyang (2007), an online community is a group people who have similar target or interest, exchange information and connect to each other by using internet. Based on White (2001), the structure, purpose and people of each online community is different. The reason that people want to build a strong community blog is because of commercial which are suitable for investors, politically mind and professional to promote or advertise their product (Stauffer,2008) . Moreover, community blogs can be non-profit which it allows the user to share and exchange information and it can be neither public nor private (Stauffer, 2008).

Furthermore, there are variety types of blog community such as health, professional information, educational, fashionable, entertainment, economic, entertainment, and political. For instance, Barack Obama who is the president of America had built a strong community blog - WhiteHouse.gov. In this websites, it provides information about the issues, administration, legislation and the government body in America. Moreover, it contains open government initiative and the citizens are able to post their question (White House, 2009).

A community blog is able to helps one find and fit in a particular group which has similarity and widen one’s knowledge. Moreover, blogs can unite people as it provides an attachment between people such as the government and citizens or people who came from different state and have different culture. While creating a blog or building community, the user should use it wisely and decently.
(Picture from PassPort Health, 2008)
References:

Owyang, J 2007, Defining the term: Online Community, Web Strategy, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/28/defining-the-term-community/

Stauffer, T 2008, How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog ,McGraw – Hill Companies, United States of America.

White, N 2001, Community Member Roles and Types, Full Circle Associates, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.fullcirc.com/community/memberroles.htm

White House 2009, Welcome to White House, USA government, viewed 12 June 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/